In its counter affidavit filed opposing the plea filed by Rev. Peter Machado and others alleging attacks on the Christian Community in the country, the Centre has said that the petitioners are trying to paint a false picture and create a false narrative by placing falsified data before the Apex Court about alleged attacks against Christians.

"The attempt of the Petitioner is to paint a particularly false picture for aims unknown to the Respondent", reads the Counter-Affidavit filed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. It also says that the country is governed by the rule of law and that the "attempt of the Petitioner to create a false narrative through the present Article 32 petition must be deprecated".

The Chief Justice-led bench on March 29, 2023, directed the Centre to submit a counter-affidavit with information received from the different states about the instances cited in the petition.

The Counter-Affidavit states that the Government is committed to ensuring the rule of law and equal protection of the law for all communities, individuals and groups in the Country. The government seeks dismissal of the petition on the grounds that there are serious discrepancies in the facts alleged in the petition and that there is an absence of material particulars.

"On the basis of inputs received, it is found that the Petitioner has resorted to falsehood and some selective self-deserving documents", says the affidavit. The Government indicates that on a preliminary ascertainment of the truthfulness of the assertions, the majority of them were either untrue or the facts were distorted. Even on the previous hearing, based on the content of the affidavit, the Solicitor General had told the Court that the petitioners want to keep the pot boiling, and project abroad that Christians are under attack.

In the 200-page Counter-Affidavit filed through the Deputy Secretary, the Ministry of Home Affairs presents the information collated by the MHA from different states. The States of Bihar, Chattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh were earlier directed by the Apex Court to furnish information regarding the (a) registration of FIRs; (b) status of the investigation; (c) arrests made; and (d) the charge sheets filed.

On the basis of the information received, the Counter Affidavit highlights the following aspects:

Majority of the Incidents Not Reported, Domestic Incidents Highlighted as Hate Crimes:

The Government has stated that upon the perusal of the verification report, the majority of the incidents (263 out of 495) from the list furnished by the petitioners have not been reported to the police. Further, out of 232 incidents reported to the State Governments, 73 of them were resolved amicably with mutual agreement and 73 incidents were related to land disputes, family disputes, superstitious practices, violation of Covid-19 guidelines and other trivial issues. The affidavit highlights that in the remaining 155 cases, FIRs were registered.

Data Relied Upon Gathered From Press Reports and Online Data, All Incidents Portrayed as Hate Crimes:

It is submitted in the affidavit, that petition has gathered data through sources like press reports, independent online data and from findings of various non-profit organisations and that in cases where the victim was of a particular religion in that scenario any and all incidents were portrayed as incidents of violence against the victim due to religious reasons without there being any factual basis for such presumption. It is further stated that the number of incidents has been exaggerated and reported as Christian persecution. "Even trivial disputes between two parties are likely to have been given religious colour" reads the affidavit.

Quoting an example of an incident in Uttar Pradesh where it was alleged that the prayer of the pastor was disrupted and the police detained him, it turned out that there was a land dispute between the pastor and the local resident and the police action in the matter was given religious colour.

Allegations in the Fact-Finding Report 'Christian Under Attack in India' and 'Hate and Targeted Violence Against Christians In India 2021' Unfounded & False:

The Counter-Affidavit states that in the fact-finding reports relied on by the petitioners, even family feuds and private land disputes are shown as communal targeting. Further, it says that the incidents in the fact-finding reports are based on calls received by it on the helplines numbers and that such incidents were included without verifying facts. "...many allegations and observations made in the report were found to be unfounded and the majority of the incidents quoted either were false or deliberately exaggerated and uncorroborated" states the Centre.

Further, the Counter Affidavit states that there are adequate provisions in the IPC to deal with offences relating to religion and that any such violations are dealt with in accordance with law and the Home Ministry upon intelligence inputs received, keeps issuing alerts/advisories to the state governments and UT administrations regarding any event that can disturb the peace and harmony of the country.

The affidavit further says that the MHA has issued necessary advisory and guidelines to all the state governments/UT administrations in compliance with Tehsneen Poonawalla's judgement regarding incidents of violence and mob lynching and that the present petition is an attempt to short-circuit the process of law followed by the entire country. The affidavit denies any violation of the Fundamental Rights of the petitioners and seeks dismissal of the petition.

The Annexures filed in the Affidavit disclose that out of the incidents claimed by the petitioners, only very few of them have ever been reported to the State Governments. It is stated that in "Bihar only 15 out of 38, in Chattisgarh only 36 out of 119, in Haryana only 09 out of 19, in Jharkhand only 34 out of 60, in Karnataka only 34 out of 60, in Madhya Pradesh only 26 out of 35, in Odisha only 8 out of 14 and in Uttar Pradesh only 70 out of 150" incidents were reported to the state governments.

On the last date of the hearing, Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for the petitioners submitted that the affidavit of the Centre was received the previous night and had sought time to respond.

The Public Interest Litigation filed by Rev. Dr. Peter Machado, National Solidarity Forum, Rev. Vijayesh Lal of Evangelical Fellowship of India and others, seeks directions to the Centre and States to take action to prevent violence against the members of the Christian community in the country and setting up of an SIT to probe alleged incidents of violence against the Christian community.

The Central Government had earlier filed an affidavit objecting to the maintainability of the PIL stating that "there appears to be some hidden oblique agenda in filing such deceptive petitions, creating unrest throughout the country and perhaps for getting assistance from outside the country to meddle with internal affairs of our nation".

Cause Title- Most. Rev. Dr. Peter Machado & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors. [W.P.(Crl.) No. 137/2022]

Attacks On Christian InstitutionsHate Crime

Ramey Krishan Rana